Yesterday, 8THIRTYFOUR officially celebrated 11 years with our community, clients and staff. While our anniversary gave us an excuse to throw a party, our intent was much more powerful than that. Our message for the evening was the “Power of Small Business,” which we highlighted with a superhero theme. To me, small business owners are superheroes. They tackle challenges and failures on a daily basis while continuing to push forward. We have a vision in our head of what we want our business to be and who we want to help and we refuse to give up.

As a member of the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM), I am surrounded by super heroes every day. Associating with these badass business owners has lead 8THIRTYFOUR to truly embrace what makes us a great company. Our dedication to our community, clients and culture are what separates us from the rest. It is hard for me to embrace kudos and show pride for 8THIRTYFOUR and all we have accomplished in the last 11 years, however, it is necessary.

When we choose our clients, we do so knowing we can help them meet the integrated communication goals they have for their company. We won’t work with businesses we don’t believe in and we won’t take you on if we can’t help you. Our clients trust us and recognize our value and for that I am damn grateful.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for trusting 8THIRTYFOUR with your brand and for believing in the power of small business. We didn’t just throw a party, we threw a message and I hope it resonated with those that attended.

Where the hell do you even start? Whether you are the one responsible for creating a marketing plan or you are working with an agency, you need to understand the components.

The following outline is what I start with when crafting a strategy and then I customize based on the client, industry and overall goals. This will give you a starting point, and you can then add and subtract from there.

Marketing Plan Overview:This is just a paragraph or two of what is included in the plan. What are the components and sections that are outlined in the strategy.

Goals & Objectives: It is imperative that you map out measurable goals, break it out into internal and external goals. Below are some examples:

Increase leads through website by 10 a month.

Map out internal processes to streamline the customer service experience.

You will also want to outline how you plan to measure each of these goals. Obviously with the website lead generation, it will be how many forms are filled out, calls made, traffic on page, etc. For the internal processes, you can set a timeline of when each section will be completed.

SWOT Analysis:SWOT Analysis is a tool for examining the current status of a company in a particular marketplace. This is not expected to be timeliness, but to give a snapshot of the company and the market forces at this point in time.

Strengths & Weaknesses: Internal factors that can support or hinder a company’s success. These are factors that the company has control over, and can change over time. Examples: reputation, education, location, patents, assets, competitive advantages

Opportunities & Threats: External market forces that can support or hinder a company’s success in the marketplace. These factors are outside of the company’s control.

Competitor Analysis: This may seem redundant year after year, but it is important to revisit ever year. Look at what your major competitors are doing well or not so well in the marketing realm, so look at their website, social media, search rank, blogging, email marketing and more. Learn from what they are doing well and avoid what they are not doing well.

Research:This section will vary based on your industry. However, if you have done surveys or client interviews in the past, that is a great starting point. You can also indicate in the strategy that surveys are going to be implemented as part of the strategy. By gathering as much intel as you can on your current and past customers, you can effectively plan out tools and tactics within the plan. This section is also where you map out buyer/audience personals. Below is an example, if the client was a home builder or realty company:

Millennial Couple with Young Kinds, a Dog

Clear pricing is important for this group so they can manage budget, although they are often willing to stretch.

Space is important for kids to be close and have places to play, desire to entertain family and friends is also important.

They research every buying decision online before moving forward. This is often done on a tablet or mobile phone.

They are avid watchers of HGTV, especially Fixer Upper as they can relate to Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Messaging: Clear and consistent messaging is a must for all brands. By maintaining consistence across all communication mediums, you ensure that everyone is receiving the right message. In this section outline your brand attributes, positioning statement, elevator speech, tagline, tone and voice and sample language.

Tactics: This is the section where you map out how you are going to achieve the goals you mapped out early on in the strategy. Depending on what the research, competitor analysis and other sections reveal this can include, but is not limited to:

Community engagement

Digital – SEO/SEM

Email marketing

Social media

Video

Advertising

Public relations

Blogging

The next section is implementation. I recommend breaking this out first quarterly, then monthly, then weekly and finally daily. Be sure everyone on your team knows what they are responsible for and revisit the strategy often in bi-weekly meetings to adjust as needed.

The use of social media is a hot topic around our office lately. We have a social media policy at 8THIRTYFOUR, it is all of one paragraph and states that employees are expected to engage with our brand, share our content and be good ambassadors. What it fails to get into is the type of content, posts, expectations, etc. to ensure the company brand is protected.

It is important to me that each employee feels free to express their opinions, share their personal stories and utilize social media how they want. However, as a business owner, I also have to manage and protect my brand.

When I rewrite our policy, I will be sure to include the following and I encourage you to do the same.

Indicate what is confidential to the company. For example, sharing information on a RFP response, client work, financial information, etc. Make sure an employee understands what content they need to ask approval on before sharing. A good rule of thumb is mirroring the content shared on the company social channels.

What are the consequences? It is fascinating to me the stuff people will share online without considering the ramifications. Social media does not happen in a vacuum, something you share with a few hundred friends can easily go viral. Be sure your employees are clear on the repercussions. Firing? Suspension?

Encourage an open dialogue. As I said earlier in this blog, we are having this discussion internally. Employees have to feel they can come to you with questions as it relates to social media.

Social media is a reflection of your culture. I ask employees to use their best judgment and to remember they are ambassadors of our brand. We are a progressive agency and do not shy away from uncomfortable topics, that being said inform, educate and share. Use the platform to appropriately and stop with the damn selfies.

Avoid the illegal. Nothing much to say about this one, except don’t do it. It is necessary for a company to state “don’t use social media for illegal activities.”

A company’s social media policy should educate employees on usage and give examples of what is and isn’t acceptable.

My advice to employees is, anything you put out there to be seen should be intelligent and well-thought out. Too often we use social media as a passive aggressive way to share our opinions. How about writing a blog and then encouraging the discussion to happen there.

Besides a craving for a sandwich, do you think of certain brands when you think of these products? Does Jif or Smuckers pop into your head? Companies invest millions into advertising, so their brand is top of mind at the time of a buying decision. They want you to be loyal to their brand, regardless of the cost of their product.

According to Forbes, brand loyalty is the tendency for customers to favor one brand, consistently, above its competitors for goods and services, even when new purchasing opportunities appear. Companies depend on brand loyalty or awareness to influence a consumer’s buying decision.

If you are hoping to resonate with the generation born after 1980, then you need to up your game before your competition does. It’s not impossible to build loyalty among this large population that has dollars to spend, but it does take a very strategic approach that may be different than tactics that have worked for you and your brand in the past.

Integrate the ideas below and watch your engagement soar:

User-generated content

Millennials want to hear from people their own age, authentically. They don’t care what the older generation thinks or recommends — they care what their peers say, do, wear and think. They can also tell when something is contrived to gain their attention. Find the right people who really love your products and work with them to share content that is honest and engaging.

3 stars or 4 stars, it matters

Millennials are avid readers of reviews and opinions. They want it real and unedited — and they want it online. Companies need to invest heavily in digital and market with the customer, not to them. What is your plan for addressing a negative review? Are you making it really easy for customers who love your products to share that with others? Strategy here makes all the difference. Entire brands have died, because people shared negative experiences.

Get creative

This is the selfie generation. They love to be seen and heard. Meet them where they are — social media (Snapchat, Instagram and more), mobile, online. You get the picture. Leverage the creativity of your team to create new and innovative ways to share your products and create real conversations.

To quote a recent Inc. article: “Millennials may not trust corporations, but they do trust each other. And they love to share.”

The weather certainly seems to be symbolic of where we are as a country right now – chaotic, confused and heated.

Business & Brand Activism

8THIRTYFOUR is a progressive agency, that is something we have never shied away from, and we find it important to take a stance on issues we believe in. Hell yes, Colin Kaepernick and all of the other NFL players should be kneeling. We will take this stance any day.

This isn’t always common practice for businesses, as it can, in some instances affect your revenue stream.

However, the impact on revenue can be a positive one, if done appropriately.

NFL, Racial Injustice, Bathroom Laws, and More – When to Take a Stand?

When is it appropriate for a business to take a stand? A Fast Company article on brand activism made the following points:

When brands take action on issues their customers care about, it fosters an emotional connection.

Brands understand the value of following their employees’ lead on issues, both because it helps with retention and recruitment directly and because being known for running a respectful, thoughtful workplace.

Taking a stand is polarizing, and could turn off or even drive away potential customers who don’t agree with you.

It’s important for companies engaging in brand activism to be seen as leaders in their industry, not followers.

As a business, this is an important conversation to have internally. We are experiencing an incredibly divisive time in our country and this is leading to more businesses such as Apple, Starbucks and Target issuing public statements on the “bathroom law”, LGBTQ rights, marriage equality, racial injustice (NFL dialogue) and more.

To be clear, I mean public speaking not just talking out loud. Although I do excel at that regardless if I have an audience.

This week, actually today, I am talking to a group of professionals at OrgPro on measuring ROI on marketing efforts as well as personal branding. The latter is my most favorite topic in the world, see here and here and here.

For those of you that can’t possibly imagine getting up in front of a group of people…suck it up. If you are a business owner or have anything to do with business development, community engagement or marketing – you need to be front and center with your peers. Honestly, if you are trying to grow your network then you need to position yourself as a leader and you do that by being the one standing and talking…not sitting (just so we are clear).

Here are a few ways to get started.

Event attendance. If you want to speak in front of a certain group of people, then you need to actually attend the orgs/associations events. Get to know the president, event chair and other board members. When chatting with them, let them know that you would love to see a speaker on such and such topic. Follow-up at a later day and volunteer to either speak or pull together a panel.

Write. If you are not writing or blogging about what you do or what your specialty is, then why would anyone ask you to speak? You have to illustrate you are an expert or at least know what the hell you are talking about. Reach out to local publications, submit op-ed pieces, blog for another site – do something.

Sit on a board. Getting involved in an association or peer group gives you the unique opportunity to assist with programming. You obviously don’t want to be self-promotional but you can volunteer when it is a fit.

Reach out to your local Chamber. If you are a member of your local Chamber, then reach out to their events staff and let them know you are interested in presenting on a few different subjects. They may not have something right away, but they now know you are interested.

Pull together your own peer group. A few years ago, I started a group along with two other women that discussed leadership. We were responsible for the topic each month, but we invited a variety of different people to participate. Why not do the same? If you love finance, then create a group that talks about numbers. Position yourself as a leader and the rest will follow.

The more organizations, associations and community happenings you are involved in the larger your network will become and opportunities will then present themselves. Remember, personal branding?

We have a saying around our office, “Presentation is just as important as strategy.” What I mean by that is we could have an amazing marketing strategy that we put together for a client, but if we present it in Word with no logo, graphics or imagery it looks amateurish. We want to stand out from our competitors and we do that through great design.

Invest the money to develop collateral that embodies your company and will speak to your customers.

Take the following for example.

Sales presentations should be customized to each potential customer you are going to chat with – include their logo, add in graphs that are relevant to their industry. Let the graphics tell the story.

Your website is the first place people go to find out more information about you, with social media being a close second. Is the content, photos, design updated?

When you meet someone, the first thing you hand them is your business card. Did you order them through VistaPrint or did you work with a designer to develop a template? What is the message you want to send?

In our industry, proposals are a constant and we want to stand out. We have custom letterhead and a cover page that presents our company in a professional and eye-catching manner.

Social media is an important tool for businesses. Do you have a cover image for Facebook and LinkedIn? Customizing those images allows companies to share an important message to visitors.

These are just a few examples of how design affects multiple facets of a business. Creative isn’t one and done, it should be ongoing to keep your brand fresh and relevant.

Is your logo outdated and no longer relevant to your customers? Do you even know how your brand is perceived? A brand’s mark can be very subjective as individuals see and interpret things differently based off their own experiences.

When we work with companies on a rebranding or branding effort it is incredibly important that our process allows for as much research and feedback as possible. By doing this, we are able to build consensus and ensure everyone understands the creative direction.

This doesn’t mean that an entire company of 200 people will be chiming in and directing efforts, it means that they are given the opportunity through either interviews or a survey to answer key questions that will give us valuable insight. Your employees and customers all interact with your brand differently, by seeking their input you are laying the right foundation for successful branding.

Seth Godin says it best, A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.

A communication strategy really does serve a purpose, it isn’t just something you read once and set on a shelf. It should be your roadmap to meeting your business goals, whether it is awareness, generating leads or recruiting talent.

Still not convinced? Here are 10 signs you need a communication strategy.

Elevator pitch. You don’t have one or if you do it has never been communicated to your employees, investors or customers. Do a quick poll, ask a few of your employees how they describe the company to customers, friends or family. Then take note and put the process in place to fix it.

Purpose. If you have a strategic plan or have overall goals set for the business, how are your communication efforts supporting that? Do you even know what you are doing in terms of marketing? Who is managing it? A plan gives you purpose as a company, it is your guid

IT. If your IT department is managing your email marketing, social media accounts and website, you are WAY overdue for a marketing strategy/overhaul. IT stands for information technology, they are talented individuals that ensure computers, software, programs, etc. run properly. Most of the time, these employees don’t interact with your customers…so why the hell would you put them in charge of your communication? Have you ever held more than a 15 minute conversation with your IT help desk?

Assets. Do you know what exists in print or the digital space that has your company name on it? Do you know how many Facebook pages or Twitter accounts you have? What about LinkedIn? Are you employees starting ones under the company? If so, how are they representing you? If you have no idea what is out there, how can you properly utilize all of your channels?

Stock photography. If you are using pictures of random people sitting around a board room table all holding hands or using computers from the early 2000s…you might need a communication strategy. Every piece of material that is seen by the public should be uniform, with approved imagery, font, logo and messaging. Please, for all that is good and holy, invest in a photographer and create your own image library. If you want customers to relate to you, they do need to know you are not a 30 year old white man that employs only other 30 year old white men.

Brand. Do you have a brand guide? Maybe it’s just me, but I am pretty Type A. I want to lay eyes on anything that 834 produces as it relates to the company brand. Our creative director put together a brand guide that illustrates proper usage, font, colors and also shows what not to do. Every single employee should lay eyes on your brand or style guide so they know what is expected.

Messaging. This is similar to your elevator pitch. It is a little like the telephone game (totally just aged myself), if your messaging is muddled to begin with then by the time it reaches the 10th or 100th person, it isn’t even close to representing your company. A strategy maps out all your channels and how your brand is communicated through them. What is your brand personality? Promise?

Vision. Is your entire company on board with the company vision? Do they know what it is? Every single employee should understand company goals, from customer service to front desk to sales to operations to the custodian – every one. Your reputation will only grow as each employee buys in and feels like they are contributing to achieving the company vision.

Sales is siloed. Your sales team should not be creating their own material, presentations, emails or other customer communication. This is where the sweet stock photography comes in, don’t even get me started on copyright infringement – this alone is reason to invest in a marketing strategy or better yet, an agency. It is your job to provide your sales team with the tools they need to land business, if they are spending half their time writing copy, creating a brochure, setting up networking events…then they sure as hell aren’t selling.

Measure. Part of crafting a communications strategy is measuring success. If you have no idea what marketing efforts are successful then you can’t replicate that success. Measuring how your customers hear about you, interact with you and perceive you are what allows companies to continue to grow and prosper.

A written strategy is just the first step in defining your communications planning, some would say it is the easiest with the hardest being the implementation. The strategy determines your purpose, defines your audience and maps out your tools and tactics. If you don’t have a strategy you are just throwing shit against the wall and hoping something will stick..and once it does you will have no idea how to replicate it.

I had a conversation with a friend, and someone I respect immensely professionally, about a company’s brand and how it is interpreted across all channels.

She shared with me a recent letter she had received from her bank, which told her they did not have proof of insurance for her business and that this needed to be rectified immediately or they would purchase the insurance and charge her back. Besides the fact that coverage had never lapsed and this was the 1st notice, the letter was rude, forceful and impersonal. Don’t even get me started on the fact that they sent a LETTER, apparently email has caught on yet in the world of banking.

Since my friend is a badass, she took the opportunity to make a few suggestions to the bank, below is a blurb from her response:

Has your marketing department seen the language on these letters? The tone contradicts the message they are communicating about the bank on billboards. It is also vastly different from another letter I received at the office. Just really weird.

When developing or defining a company’s messaging it is critical to understand the communication channels in which that messaging will be used. Some of the most common are: 1) Email, 2) Website, 3) Brochure copy, 4) Digital – social, video, etc., 5) Advertising and more.

These are the obvious channels, but are they really what makes the most impact? A few things to consider:

How does your company communicate? If your customer service team is sending out letters, emails or mailing notices – have you reviewed? Are they in line with your brand? Does the language need to be improved?

Face of the company. The face of the company is not the CEO or President. At a bank it is your tellers, customer service over the phone and a variety of other personnel on the ground interacting with customers. Do they have talking points? Is everyone on the same page when it comes to the brand promise and characteristics?

Out-of-office. If an employee takes a vacation or is sick, how are they communicating their absence? I know, you are shaking your head and telling me I am getting to deep into the weeds. I’m trying to make a point. Your customer service and sales communication channels need to reflect the same message you are communicating through your fancy commercials and billboards.

When you are rolling out brand messaging for your company, you need to look at EVERY communication channel – letters, in-person interaction, automated phone system, out-of-office responses, press release boilerplates…you get my point. Think how your customers interact with your brand on a regular basis.